7.1.5 PTR: Call of the Scarab Micro-Holiday

Micro-holidays are new types of celebrations coming in Patch 7.1.5; each one will last for only a few days and pay tribute to a different part of Azeroth's culture. Over the next few weeks, a different one will be up to test each day on the PTR! Check out our overview of the holidays here.

Today's holiday for testing is :

(January 21 - 23): "On this date, the Scarab Gong was rung, opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. Represent your faction by gathering supplies or by slaying Twilight and Qiraji forces. The winning faction gets to fly their banner next to the Scarab Gong for the rest of the year!"

The event will pit the Alliance and Horde against each other to earn the most credit: whoever wins can fly their faction flag in Silithus for a year. Learn more about the event by heading down to the Field Marshals by the gong in Silithus ().

Video Preview of the Event

Acquiring Commendations

Players can obtain and by completing various activities in Silithus such as turning in meat, summoning Abyssals, and completing unique World Quests.

Turn in 20 meat for 20 Commendations.

World Quests award between 100-140 Commendations.

Defeating Abyssal Dukes grants a quest for 200 Commendations

Defeating Abyssal High Council grants a quest for 500 Commendations

These Commendations are server-wide currency and the Alliance and Horde totals are displayed in the top-center of your screen.

World Quests

These World Quests will send you to complete various activities in Silithus such as:

: Defeating Templars at Lesser Wind Stones - 150

: Defeating in - 150

: Defeating in - 100

: Collecting - 100

, , : Defeating mobs like which were only part of the AQ Opening Event - 150

Whichever faction has more commendations by the end of the event wins!

Twilight Cultist Camps

The Twilight Camps in Silithus have been updated with level 110 mobs, including , , , and .

There are four places to find Twilight Cultists: Twilight's Run Cave, Twilight Outpost, Twilight Post, and Twilight Base Camp.

These mobs can drop and pieces of the Twilight Cultist Armor: , , . This is personal loot.

Good news on the armor: each piece now stacks! When you summon an elemental at the Windstone, you only lose one armor buff instead of all three as well.

Each camp has different wind stones, which summon bosses:

Lesser Wind Stone requires all three Twilight Cultist buffs. You can summon a , , or which can be defeated solo. These all drop an for everyone in the group, and can also be tossed around to friends.

Wind Stone requires all three Twilight Cultist buffs and . You can summon a , , , or which can be defeated in a small group. Related quests: , , , . These bosses drop an item which starts a turn-in quest for 200 Commendations.

Greater Wind Stone requires all three Twilight Cultist buffs, , and . You can summon , , , or which require a large group.

Gathering Supplies

Another way to represent your faction is by gathering supplies. This is a throwback to quests like .

Find the meat collectors by the Scarab Gong, and . They will collect 20x of various types of meat to attract gigantic bugs:

from Silithus zone mobs

from level 20-30 mobs

from Wrath Beasts

from Cataclysm beasts

from Pandaria beasts

from Draenor Beasts

from Legion Beasts

Turning in any quest (example ) gives 20 Commendations.

Event History

This event commemorates one of the most memorable times in WoW: the server-wide effort to unlock the gates of Ahn'Qiraj.

One person on each server completed an elaborate questline to bang the gong and open the gates: you can read about all the requirements on the Veteran of the Shifting Sands page. For a brief overview, there were three different shards which were scattered around Azeroth:Red Shard: Complete a speed run of Blackwing Lair () after grinding out Brood of Nozdormu reputation ().

Blue Shard: Acquire by completing , acquire Draconic for Dummies pages around the world in , farm goggles in , and create an expensive Arcanite Buoy to summon . This part of the chain is narrated by colorful characters like Azuregos and Narain Soothfancy.

Green Shard: Defeat the four Green Dragon World Bosses () and complete an epic event to save Nighthaven from Eranikus ().

The first person on the server, as well as anyone who rang the gong 10 hours afterwards, was awarded the mount and title for completing .During the opening of the gates, qiraji poured forth into SIlithus, leading to epic boss fights (and a lot of lag). It was a server-wide event to fight back the qiraji and each mob had a higher-than-normal chance to drop distinctive epics like from the special satchel .As part of grinding out reputation in Silithus, players completed an elaborate series of summoning rituals among the Twilight Cultist Camps. Killing Twilight Cultists was needed for , which awarded reputation with Cenarion Circle when turned in. The summoning rituals were needed to summon progressively-harder Abyssals, culminating in World Bosses. During the Cataclysm revamp, these questlines were broken.Cenarion Circle reputation was important in Classic WoW because crafters needed reputation to purchase Nature Resistance gear for . One special vendor was , who had to be kept alive after , to sell and . Exalted with CC was also needed to create weapons from AQ20 drops, like . These sets had distinctive 3-piece set bonuses.When the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj were opened, two raids were available: and . was considered the easier raid and only required 20 players, but was difficult for undergeared players due to the endless waves on , exploding eggs of , and minimap coordination needed for . was a very challenging raid. Players are sure to have memories of whirlwinding, the gauntlet going to , crafting resistance gear for the soakers on , using Warlock tanks for Twin Emps, and accidentally chaining the beams on .The gear from these instances had a distinctive bug-themed aesthetic, with scales and beetle-like spikes like and . The transmog sets from AQ marked a big departure from the classic-themed looks of Tier 1 and Tier 2.The trash in was very difficult had a small chance to drop Resonating Crystal mounts to only use inside the instance. Acquiring the rare red mount rewarded

The Field Marshals will provide you with more history about the event:

On this day, many years ago, a hero by the name of Kalahad rang the Scarab Gong, opening the gates to Ahn'Qiraj and beginning a war the likes of which Kalimdor had never seen.

Today we celebrate the heroics of those past adventurers by returning to Silithus and walking in their footsteps.

What's more: this is a competition between the Horde and Alliance. Whichever group can earn more credits over the next 24 hours earns the right to fly their flag next to the gong for the rest of the year.

How can I help the war effort?

Disrupt the Twilight's Hammer camps, and strike at their Abyssal High Council!

Slay the mighty silithid colossi that dwell in each of the three large silithid hives.

Gather silithyst, a valuable red spice, for our faction.

Venture into Ahn'Qiraj itself and deal with the qiraji and old god menaces that dwell inside!

Even adventurers that prefer not to fight can participate by donating war supplies, in the form of meat, to our cause.

Why are the items you sell so expensive?

Yes, both the Medallion of Station and the Ring of Lordship are expensive - far too expensive for any one person to purchase on their own.

I suggest you team up with other adventurers and select a champion. Only one medallion or ring is required to summon the high-ranking members of the Abyssal Council - but many heroes will be required to defeat them.

Commenti

Commento di Yograin

Commento di Joshmaul

Ah, so Kalahad is our official Scarab Lord now? (I was on Medivh during that event, heh.) I thought it was some night elf chick for lore purposes...

Commento di Pierre91

on 2016-12-06T04:42:22-06:00

Guys do we have any word on rewards for these mini holiday things? Purchasable items? Heirloom Upgrades? Anything?

Commento di CaspianRoach

on 2016-12-06T05:19:44-06:00

Acquiring the rare red mount rewarded Why? Because It's Red

No it didn't. Achievements were only introduced with WotLK, way past the classic content.

Commento di supakilla

on 2016-12-06T06:43:13-06:00

Finally WQ's in Silithus!

Commento di Azunyan

on 2016-12-06T06:51:24-06:00

Just noticed some errors.

Temple of Ahn'Qiraj was considered the easier raid and only required 20 players, but was difficult for undergeared players due to the endless waves on General Rajaxx, exploding eggs of Buru the Gorger, and minimap coordination needed for Ossirian the Unscarred.

Commento di leduk

I'm from the horde on a 90%horde server, so I don't worry too much for me, but... it will be hard for some people.

No it didn't. Achievements were only introduced with WotLK, way past the classic content.

well, sorry but he's right...Modello Testarossa(french version is an easter egg about french -red- drink but I don't know for the english version)

Commento di Dimhiriel

on 2016-12-06T06:55:41-06:00

beside the fact that your faction will have a flag over the gong in a zone where no one ever goes during the rest of the year. Isn't there any kind of reward even toy or anything? you're gonna go 5min to test when it goes live and then forget about it very quickly and go back to world quests. just saying...

Commento di Mileron

on 2016-12-06T07:29:54-06:00

Since there are world quests pointing you to AQ, does this mean the raid zone will be, for lack of a better description, set up "timewalking" style and allow dropping of higher ilvl loot?

Or will I be able to flatten it at character level 80+ and still contribute to "The Cause" ?

Commento di stym

on 2016-12-06T07:40:16-06:00

Finally WQ's in Silithus!

Finally, quests of any kind in Silthus!

There, I fixed it for you. :)

Commento di towa1

on 2016-12-06T07:51:26-06:00

I'll pass on this one.

Commento di jfett47

on 2016-12-06T08:26:18-06:00

When the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj were opened, two raids were available: Temple of Ahn'Qiraj and Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj. Temple of Ahn'Qiraj was considered the easier raid and only required 20 players, but was difficult for undergeared players due to the endless waves on General Rajaxx, exploding eggs of Buru the Gorger, and minimap coordination needed for Ossirian the Unscarred.Temple of Ahn'Qiraj was a very challenging raid. Players are sure to have memories of Battleguard Sartura whirlwinding, the gauntlet going to Fankriss the Unyielding, crafting resistance gear for the soakers on Princess Huhuran, using Warlock tanks for Twin Emps, and accidentally chaining the beams on C'Thun.

You said that both raids were temple when giving the description of them.

Commento di avatarofshadow

on 2016-12-06T09:18:47-06:00

No pet. No toybox item. No thank you.

Commento di leowow

on 2016-12-06T09:50:13-06:00

And what will happen on servers full of Horde and less Alliance?. We already know the banner that will go for the rest of the year....

They should have added a recolored version of the Black Qiraji. An armored Black Qiraji would have been awesome for the winners.

Not interesting at all being like the way it is now.

Commento di perculia

on 2016-12-06T09:54:10-06:00

Fixed the typos linking to the wrong pages, sorry it was a late night for us :)

Commento di Falcarra

on 2016-12-06T11:22:20-06:00

Guys do we have any word on rewards for these mini holiday things? Purchasable items? Heirloom Upgrades? Anything?

The Micro Holidays were only intended to have fun, as mentioned during a BlizzCon panel. They were just there to be there, commemorating events that occurred in the past, and to add more world immersion (You have to watch the panel to understand the second part). They weren't supposed to award pets and such that you "had to collect." Sort of like the other micro holidays that are planned, like "Boating Day" and the hatching of the hippogryphs.

Commento di Kanariya

on 2016-12-06T11:47:34-06:00

So excited they're actually bringing back the old content Cataclysm removed, especially the windstone bosses. Silithus was WoW's first max-level zone, and it had so much to do. It was devastating to see it gutted, but now new players will finally get to see a lot of what once was. Just wish this holiday lasted more than a couple days.

Also should note that picking up Silithyst auto-flags you for PvP without warning, and each turnin awards 3 Honor and a stacking buff: Tracce di Silitista.

Commento di Winfree

on 2016-12-06T12:56:00-06:00

I like how blizzard is bringing old inactive zone back to life. Good job!

Commento di myman1111

on 2016-12-06T14:00:05-06:00

Blizzard said at blizzcon there will not be any special obtainable items on these days because people may miss them.

Commento di trest

on 2016-12-06T14:07:18-06:00

I hope they make this scaling to character level — like with the Legion pre-patch invasions. I’m not particularly interested in taking my main there if there aren’t any substantive rewards beyond “participation”. But, if I could at least be getting some xp on a lower level alt (like 60-109), I would totally jump into the fray.